When is it time for a new computer

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peter912

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My Computer is a 6 year old Dell with Windows Vista. Lately it has been freezing and crashing quite frequently. Is this a sign that it needs to be replaced ?
 
all mine have worked easily for 10 or 12 yrs. even then still worked. 6 yrs old, time to replace the battery on the mother board and guessing you been cleaning it properly. (blowing it out). Do and would if mine a new installation and clean install.
 
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My school has a contract through Dell, and most of our district machines (Optiplex series) last about 6 years until being replaced. Our old WinXP Optiplex GX-260s in the comp. lab are still running strong today! All of the other district computers are Optiplex 745 computers or newer. They'be been very low maintenance and the only part that gets maintenance a lot is the CD-ROM drive because the students will take out the drive belt and make the drive tray inoperable.
 
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10+ years is really pushing it, but it depends on how high end of a computer you bought in the first place. If you bought a budget machine 6 years ago, it's not going to last as long as a high end machine purchased 6 years ago.

I'd say if you get 5-7 years out of a computer, it has served it's purpose and it's cheaper to replace than to upgrade various components.
 
I'd run something like Memtest86+ as a starter.

Computers have a wide varying lifespan depending on environment and usage. PSU, HDD and RAM are the most failed components. A lot of other pieces like motherboard and CPU can easily last a decade or more.

If you are like some of us around here, there's never really 'getting a new computer' as opposed to a continual upgrade cycle of your existing PC.
 
To me the time for a new computer is either when it becomes uneconomical to repair or simply when you feel it is time and how much you want or will benefit from new standards.

Given you say your system is 6 years old then you will most likely be missing many new standards like usb 3.0, sata 3, I also assume it will have a traditional hard drive and not an ssd, all these features make your computer much faster and efficient piece of equipment and that has the knock on effect of making it much more enjoyable to use.

When I work on any machine now without an ssd, it is a slow frustrating experience.
 
first step.
Scan for virus/ malware
run ccleaner
Clear all dust inside the case.

If problem did not solve after doing that,
back up and re-install windows,


if you still having problem after doing this, start to check if there is hardware issues
 
If Vista haven't been reinstalled in the 6 years you've had it then I would say that its just time to reinstall fresh. How much ram is installed? There is no set time on how long a computer will last. If what you use your system for isn't very demanding then there is no need up upgrade at this time. Just reinstall windows and you should see a healthy system again.
 
johnb35 said:
If Vista haven't been reinstalled in the 6 years you've had it then I would say that its just time to reinstall fresh. How much ram is installed? There is no set time on how long a computer will last. If what you use your system for isn't very demanding then there is no need up upgrade at this time. Just reinstall windows and you should see a healthy system again.
Click to expand...


3.00 GB Ram

I went to MicroSofts web site and ran a free windows scan ,to delete a lot of stuff on start up and it is starting much faster now
 
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peter912 said:
My Computer is a 6 year old Dell with Windows Vista. Lately it has been freezing and crashing quite frequently. Is this a sign that it needs to be replaced ?
Click to expand...
For starters, go into the BIOS and do a hardware diagnostic. Dell PCs have a hidden partition with diagnostic tools, usually to test the system memory and the hard drive. If it passes these tests I'd recommend you examine the memory dumps Windows usually creates when the computer crashes. Go to C:\Windows\Minidump where you should find several (or many) DMP files.

If you don't see the Minidump folder, this feature may be disabled. To enable it do the following:

1-Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2-Double-click System, and then click Advanced system settings.
3-Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
4-In the Write debugging information list, click Small memory dump.

Once you have several DMP files download and run BlueScreenView to examine them. The information you get can be somewhat cryptic, but comparing several DMP files may allow you to detect a certain pattern. If a corrupt driver is the culprit you'll see the SYS file (or several) at the top of the list. For example, dxgkrl.sys may point to a DirectX issue, while atikmpag.sys would probably point to a video driver problem. If you see the same file mentioned in several DMP files you could probably reinstall/update the video driver, antivirus program, or whatever application is referenced.

Good luck.
 
Clear your prefetch, and switch to using vista basic theme. Also, type in msconfig into the search bar, and disable all your programs that launch on startup
 
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